Huge Analytics discrepancy when I turned off Analytics Module & Turned on GA via GTM
-
Hello,
I was running universal GA via a GA Drupal module. We setup Google Tag Manager and setup a GA tag to run through GTM. When we pushed the GTM container live our Real Time was at around 1900 and when we turned off the Drupal module the Real Time was reporting around 1100.
After 24 hours the sessions for that day were about 100k lower than what they usually are.
Any ideas Why the larger discrepancy? Any places that are obvious to look?
*I didn't setup the original Drupal GA module, nor do I know who did.
Thanks
-
Thanks, Dirk. I had the devs move the data layer above the GTM container snippet. The GA tag is still not firing on pages with a data layer and firing on pages without a data layer.
Obviously, it looks like there is an issue with the data layer -- I can't figure out what it is. I took a screen grab of the data layer in the source code.
-
Can only give you a theoretical answer - don't have that much experience with debugging the tag manager. From the "manual":
Data layer needs to be above the container snippet
Datalayer should be added above the container snippet. Variables pushed to the data layer after the container snippet will not be able to fire tags on page loads with a matching condition.
Variables pushed to the data layer after the container snippet will not be able to fire tags on page loads with a matching condition.
Move the datalayer to above the container snippetCheck also https://www.optimizesmart.com/google-tag-manager-data-layer-explained-like-never/ - it seems that you define your data layer after the position of the tag - so the tag cannot send the info from the data layer to Analytics. Check your source code & check where the data layer is defined. Probably it's ok on your category pages but not on the detail pages (compare both types to see the difference)
Hope this helps.
Dirk
-
Hey Dirk,
I checked the debugger and on the pages where the tag isn't firing the console isn't even acknowledging GTM.
The Tag Assistant is showing this error on pages where the GA tag is not firing: 'data layer needs to be above the container snippet.' Do you think this could be the issue?
I work with a journal site, and I notice that on landing pages the GA tag mostly fires correctly, but on article pages the tag doesn't fire and I get the 'data layer' error from tag assistant. e.x: the tag fires on /news but not on /news/some-random-article-from-today
-
Apart from the Tag manager assistant - you could also check the debugger -https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-analytics-debugger/jnkmfdileelhofjcijamephohjechhna?hl=en-US - like Martijn mentioned there should be an error somewhere - did you check the messages in the console?
-
That is possible, the coding is a mess. How could I see if there were or were not JavaScript errors on the page? And if there were, how to pinpoint which are interfering with my GA tag firing?
Thanks, Martijn!
-
Are you sure that there are no JavaScript errors on the page?
-
I found a subdirectory that the GA tag is not firing on though the GTM container is present.
When I use Debug, I get this message:
No tags were evaluated because there was no Event in the selected Message
I have no idea as to why the tag is not firing.
-
Hmm yeah that seems right to me!
-
Thanks, Dirk. I'm going to follow your suggestions.
Martijn, the track type id is 'pageview' and is set to fire on 'all pages'. For my Tag Firing Options I have selected 'once per event.'
Does that seem to be right?
-
What Dirk is suggesting would be the first thing to do in my opinion as well. But the second one is what trigger are you using in Google Tag Manager. Are you targeting all pages in there or something else?
-
Run Screaming Frog - and check if the tag id is present on all pages. Apart from checking - you could also extract the code from the source to double check that the ID is correct; check here how you can do this
In Analytics reporting (Behavior > Site Content > Content Drill down) set the day after migration & compare it to the day before migration - check if there if the drop is generic (=all pages) or linked to a few sections. If the drop is higher in specific sections - go down to next level & do the same. Check the pages with the highest traffic loss using the Tag Assistant plugin for Chrome. It checks if the tag is properly implemented on these pages (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tag-assistant-by-google/kejbdjndbnbjgmefkgdddjlbokphdefk)
You can also use the Tag Assistant plugin on your main pages to see if it is sending data as you would expect.
Hope this helps.
Dirk
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Google Analytics unexplainable traffic spike
Viewing this report **Behaviour > Site content > All pages **with primary dimensions of **Page ** and **Page title **are showing different results for one specific page on our site. We noticed a huge spike in pageviews and entrances to that specific page on our site. The user flow report shows traffic going through and from the page (in high volume) from other pages on the site which suggests that it's not the usual case of spam referrals. When I view the report above by page, I get unrealistic data. Over 600% increase in pageviews and over 900% increase in entrances. When I view by page title however, I get realistic results. Can anyone help shed some light on why these two reports will be different? Anyone else seeing similar issues?
Reporting & Analytics | | OptiBacUK0 -
Is it possible to import data from an old Google Analytics profile to a new Google Analytics profile?
We have encountered a situation where a client's old SEO firm is refusing to grant us Admin access to our client's existing GA account. For security purposes (so the other SEO firm doesn't delete the existing GA profile) we have started a new Google Analytics profile. Again we do have access to the data in the old account. Is it possible to migrate this old data over (if we just have user access)? Thanks for the help
Reporting & Analytics | | RosemaryB0 -
How do you adjust the Google Analytics date range?
Hello! Every time I log into Google Analytics (via desktop), the date range is set to October 1, 2013 to October 28, 2013. I've looked throughout the GA settings to find a place where I change this default setting to anything else ("Last week?") but have not be able to find where that setting is. Can you help? Losing my mind,
Reporting & Analytics | | SmileMoreSEO
Erik0 -
What is this GA URL I keep seeing?
According to google analytics, most of my traffic goes to two URLs: "/site/kempruge" and "/" now, I'm pretty sure both of these are taking people to my homepage, but I do not understand the "/site/kempruge' one at all. When I type www.kempruge.com/site/kemprure it 404's, so I'm not sure what URL it even is? Also, I'm wondering if this url is hurting my website in some way? I attached the screenshots, but they didn't load properly. I'll try to add another one in the replies. Thanks! Ruben [
Reporting & Analytics | | KempRugeLawGroup](<a href=)" target="_blank">a>
0 -
Viewing stats for a single webpage in Analytics
I have Google Analytics and can't figure out how to generate stats for a single page on my site. I would like to know what websites are referring this page, time on site, unique views, etc.
Reporting & Analytics | | StreetwiseReports0 -
Is Analytics Code for SubDomains different?
I am currently tracking site performance on our website with Google Analytics. Recently, we've brought a Wordpress blog into our site as a subdomain blog.accupos.com. Though we did this a few months ago, we do not have Analytics data for these pages within the wordpress platform. I've found where to paste the code, in the Footer block of the Wordpress template, just before the close body tag (is this the best recommended way?) and just have one question about WHICH code to paste. Can I add the original code, same as the rest of the site? Or does Analytics have a different code for tracking subdomains? If so, do I need to replace existing code for the rest of the site? I hope I worded this okay. Please help. I'd appreciate it! Derek M.
Reporting & Analytics | | DerekM880 -
Tracking Multiple Top Level Domains in GA
Hi, I am setting up Google Analytics for www.example.co.uk and www.example.ie Is this as simple as just adding GA tracking code 'track Multiple top-level domains'? With this method how can I distinguish between each site's incoming traffic? Do filters needed to be created? Thanks in advance 🙂
Reporting & Analytics | | daracreative0 -
Analytics URL Tagging
For some reason I can't get Google Analytics to pick up my URL tags, am I doing something wrong? http://www.example.com/?utm_source=carscom&utm_campaign=3rdparty&utm_medium=referral
Reporting & Analytics | | kylesuss0